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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. My mare is ________________ in color.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Did you ________________ the meat?
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  21. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The water is too ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. bay — a horse colour
  2. degree — an amount
  3. season — to add flavour
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. season — in sport
  6. last — final
  7. chip — for betting
  8. cold — an illness
  9. bay — a part of the sea
  10. game — a match
  11. degree — from a university
  12. stock — a soup base
  13. degree — temperature
  14. last — to go on
  15. bay — to keep at bay
  16. stock — goods
  17. last — finally
  18. chip — to eat
  19. game — wild animals
  20. chip — in a computer
  21. season — of the year
  22. stock — shares
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. cold — not warm

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com